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Rare Earth Magnets:

Unlike traditional ferro-iron magnets that are used in some products, Rare Earth magnets create a powerful magnetic field that may disrupt scale formation.

Can Rare Earth Magnets Keep Your Toilet Clean?

New Product Promises Clean Toilet Bowls with no chemicals

A new product advertised on television promises to keep toilet bowls clean with the power of rare earth magnets. The commercials, and their site, indicate that the toilet magnets, encased in a plasic housing, and placed into the toilet tank, use a powerful magnetic field to prevent minerals from concentrating into lime scale which can make your toilet look streaked and dirty. The real question for the scientific community is whether or not this toilet bowl cleaning technique works, given that it could have huge implications for large companies that pay thousands of dollars a year (in labor) to have janitors and staff clean toilets. A magnetic solution to toilet bowl cleaning could have a big payoff in the business world, where every penny of savings is calculated and efficiency is treasured.

Do Toilet Magnets Really Work? That is a very good question. If the magnetic field can really keep crystals from growing in the tank or in the toilet bowl, there may be some hope. However, there is stuff that would not be affected by magnets, including bacteria, unless they were iron bacteria, and they contained sufficient free iron to be magnetic, in which case maybe they would stick to the magnet. Unfortunately, your toilet can also be stained by all the stuff that goes into it, so don't throuw away all your bathroom cleaning supplies just yet.

Notes and Special Information

Special note: Because we have not tried out the toilet magnet system we do not yet know if we can endorse it. Chemical free toilet bowl cleaning is a highly desirable way to reduce chemical exposure and waste, especially when you consider that septic systems and sewage pipes generally run to municipal facilities that must process sewage and put it back into the environment.